The present invention concerns the field of computer telephony integration (CTI) and in particular, the invention provides a graphical user interface (GUI)-enabled system and method of mapping arbitrary database schemes into a knowledge base having a known data format.
Many businesses and customer service organizations utilize telephone call centers to place outbound telephone calls and receive inbound telephone calls to and from customers or potential customers, for example, for credit collection or telemarketing. Computer telephony integration (CTI) has allowed telephone call centers to more efficiently handle both outbound telephone calls and inbound telephone calls. These computerized telephony systems typically include an automated dialer that automatically places outbound telephone calls and an automatic call distributor (ACD) that handles large volumes of inbound telephone calls. These, and other components of the telephony system, are controlled by a telephone call center management system. One example of a system and method for integrating outbound and inbound telephone calls is disclosed in greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,586,179 issued Dec. 17, 1996, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
Telephone call centers also include a number of audio head sets and data terminals used by agents or operators to communicate with the called parties and calling parties. Using the data terminal, such as a PC, an agent can view and/or enter call record data pertaining to the party (e.g., the customer or potential customer) and the transaction being made. The telephone call center management system typically controls the allocation of the agents to the inbound and/or outbound telephone calls and the management of the data presented to the agents and entered by the agents. The processing of a series of telephone calls (inbound or outbound) in a telephone call center is often referred to as a call campaign.
To initiate an outbound call campaign, the telephone call center management system generates a predefined, sorted customer call list having a number of customer call records (CCRs) including, for example, a telephone number to be called, a name, address, account number, and other information pertaining to the customer and the transaction. The CCRs pertaining to an outbound call campaign are typically downloaded from a call record source, such as a host computer, and are organized, e.g., according to the calling time, into the call lists. The telephony system reads a CCR from the predefined call lists and dials the telephone number, either automatically or at the direction of an agent. If a live party answers a call, the connected call is then routed to an available agent and the call center management system displays the information from that CCR on a display at the assigned agent""s terminal. The agent can then enter additional information and the CCR in the call list will be updated accordingly either during or upon completion of the outbound telephone call.
Outbound telephone calls are typically grouped according to a particular application. One example of an outbound telephone call campaign is in the field of telemarketing where the agents or telemarketing service representatives (TSRs) market products and/or services to the called party and take orders for the products and/or services. In this example, the telephone calls may be grouped according to the type of product or service that is being marketed.
Typically, a call center offers its services to many numbers of clients. Thus, in the example of an outbound call campaign, a call center may need to initiate outbound calls for a number of different companies. The call center would obtain CCRs from the company contracting with the call center, which would include the contact information related to the customers or potential customers of that company. Call centers customarily receive the
CCRs from their clients in electronic form and, quite often, download them from host computers maintained by the clients. CCRs are almost universally maintained in some form of data base. However, as can be appreciated, each call center client may retain its CCRs in any database format it desired. Thus, if a call center is going to offer its services to a number of clients, it must have a ready means of converting the CCR information from the client""s data base format into a format that is compatible with the call center""s CTI system.
In the past, the conversion of data has typically been performed by exporting the client""s data base into a fixed format flat file that could be used by the CTI system. However, this would require the assistance of an individual skilled in the art of computer data bases and would require a conversion program or would require a computer program to interpret and convert the data from the original format to a format usable by the call center. Alternatively, the CTI system could be customized to read directly into the client""s data base. However, this would require a custom version of the CTI system software and/or a custom computer program to perform such conversion for each client contracting with a particular call center. An example of such an automated data format conversion system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,359.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method of converting information stored in an arbitrary data base format into a knowledge base having a known data format, which does not require the assistance of a computer information system specialist or a special computer conversion program each time data base information is required. It would also be advantageous to provide such a system and method in a graphical user interface format, which could be operated by call center personnel, such as a call center supervisor.
The disclosed invention provides a system and method that overcomes many of the deficiencies found in the prior art, including but not limited to the necessity for an individual skilled in the art of computer data base management to convert data base information from one format to another. Specifically, an automated system and method for mapping a plurality of data base fields from an arbitrary ODBC-compliant data base to a plurality of attributes in a knowledge base having a known data attribute format is provided. The system includes a data base selection interface displayed on a display associated with a system user. The data base selection interface is configured to allow a system user to select the data base to map to the knowledge base having a known data attribute format. The system also includes a data attribute mapping interface, which is also displayed on the system user display. The data attribute mapping interface is configured to display a plurality of data attributes included in the knowledge base and to allow the system user to select at least one data attribute to map to at least one data field in the arbitrary data base to be converted.
Also included is an edit field mapping interface, which is also displayed on the system user display. The edit field mapping interface allows at least one selected data attribute to be displayed and allows the system user to select a data base field to map to each displayed data attribute. Finally, the system includes a data map memory for storing the mapped data base fields.
Also provided is an automated method for mapping a plurality of data base fields from an arbitrary ODBC-compliant data base to a plurality of attributes in a knowledge base having a known data attribute format. The method begins by providing a data base selection interface on a display associated with a system user. The data base selection interface displays at least one user-selectable data base to map to the knowledge base having the known data attribute format. Next, a data base to map is selected by a system user from the list of user-selectable data bases displayed on the data base selection interface. Then, a data attribute mapping interface is provided on the system user display. The data attribute mapping interface displays a plurality of data attributes included in the knowledge base. The method continues by selecting at least one displayed data attribute to map to at least one data field in the arbitrary data base. Then, an edit field mapping interface is provided on the system user display. The edit field mapping interface displays the selected data attribute. Next, a system user selects a data base field map to each displayed data base attribute. Finally, each data base field mapped to each data attribute is stored in a data map memory.